6 Reasons Your Bar Should be Using a Pre-Authorisation Bar Tab

Written by EFTPOS NZ | Tuesday, November 5, 2019

If your bar already offers bar tabs, you'll know that the convenience of opening a tab and ordering drinks from the table encourages customers to stay at your premises longer and increases average spend.

But offering a tab service is a risk. Even if you take a credit card from your customer to keep on file, it may not have enough credit on it to cover the cost of the tab, or worse - it could be stolen. So, how can you reap the rewards of offering a tab service without putting your business at risk of lost revenue?

The answer: Credit Card Pre-authorisation. A powerful feature you can use to protect your business from fraud and non-payment. A pre-auth puts a temporary ‘hold’ on funds on your customer’s card. You can then complete the transaction, once the service is completed or goods exchanged.

If you're not already using pre-auths to manage bar tabs, here's six reasons why you need to start right away:

1. Peace of mind

Credit card pre-auths allow you to check a card is a valid card (i.e not stolen!) and allows you to make sure the card has available credit on it. Instantly identify a potentially risky card before you serve the customer.

2. One tap is all it takes

When you use pre-auths to manage bar tabs your customers only need to present their card once. You don't need their card back to complete the transaction. This is a win-win for you and your customers! Reduce queuing and eliminate the friction of taking payment every time your customer orders another round.

3. Easier for them, more revenue for you!

The easier you can make it for your customers to order from you, the more likely they are to stay longer and spend more. Since your customers only have to approach the point of sale once this means more socialising (and more spending!). Make sure you have plenty of roaming servers to take orders and bring customers food and drinks.

4. Wave bye bye to the tab book

Why pay your bar tender to waste precious time looking through the tab book for your customers' credit cards when they could be focused on serving customers? If you use pre-auth bar tabs, when it’s time to close the tab your customers can simply let their server know they’re done, giving your staff enough time to complete the transaction and pass them their receipt while they finish their last drink.

5. Safety first

Reducing queuing helps clear up the floor to make it easier and safer for your servers and other customers to get around your establishment. Plus, if you offer table service it also means customers are not trying to navigate across a crowded bar with two (or three!) full pint glasses - which we all know can be a disaster waiting to happen! Keep your customers in their seats and keep spills to a minimum.

6. Customer-first

Would you feel comfortable handing your credit card to a total stranger? Well, why do you expect your customers to give you theirs? Since you can give your customer their credit card back once you've taken a pre-auth, your customer’s credit card can stay safely in their wallet, where there’s no chance of it getting lost behind the bar, stolen or skimmed. This is a much better customer experience, but it also lifts the burden of taking care of a tab book full of cards off your staff.

This payment solution is free to use and available on all Verifone EFTPOS terminals. Learn more about Pre-Authorisation on our Android EFTPOS solution on our Help Centre here.

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